ELECTORAL COLLEGE: The US is organized as a presidential system meaning the President is not elected by the legislative power but the people itself. Yet, American presidents are elected by an indirect system performed by the Electoral College. Voters do not directly vote for the President but for a closed slate of electors that will later choose the POTUS. The Electoral College is a constitutional institution composed of a variant number of electors. Federal o ce holders as well as State o cials who have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the US (14th amendment) are banned from serving as electors. Each state appoints a number of electors equal to its congressional representation, this way each state is granted a minimum of three electors (1 per each senator and 1 per congressional district). The premium that allocates 2 senators per state regardlessly of its population bene ts less populated states regarding the presidential elections. As for the District of Columbia, the XXIII amendment grants a number of electors equal as that of the least populous state (3). This makes a total of 538 electors, meaning that an absolute majority of 270 electors is needed in order to elect the POTUS and VPOTUS. If no absolute majority is reached the POTUS will be elected by the House while the VPOTUS will be elected by the Senate. In the House an special voting procedure will be followed in which each state receives a single vote regardlessly of the congressional districts or representatives it has. Elector slates are designed by State parties following di erent procedures that vary from one state to another. There’s a di erent slate of electors per candidate and state so electors aren’t predetermined but chosen on the Election Day. Most of the States use a winner-take-all system which means that once a candidate obtains simple majority within a determinate State all of its electors are chosen within that state. This system allows a candidate to become POTUS without obtaining the majority of the popular vote. Only Maine and Nebraska use proportional systems in which the winner candidate within the overall State receives 2 electors and the winner candidate within each congressional district receives 1 elector. Finally the POTUS is chosen at the meeting of the electors which takes place the rst Monday after the second Wednesday in December. All of the electors within a same slate are pledged to vote for the same candidate, however electors could vote for a di erent candidate or even somebody not running for president. These are called faithless electors and are only proscribed in a few State jurisdictions. In 2017 seven members of the Electoral College voted for a candidate di erent from the one to whom they were pledged. The primary elections: The primary election aim is to select the party’s candidate that will run for President on the General Elections. The candidates are chosen by the party’s National Convention, whose members are known as delegates. These Delegates can be either pledged or unpledged. Pledged delegates are supposed to vote for an speci c nominee and are chosen by party members or even ordinary voters through a series of primary elections or caucuses. In the selection process of pledged delegates we must highlight three moments, the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primaries and Super Tuesday. The former two are the rst events in the primary election process and altogether hoard over 50% of the media attention. The winners to these are said to achieve the “Momentum” or “Big Mo”, that will later help them to win the primary elections. Super Tuesday is the day in which most of the States coordinately celebrate their primaries. Party candidates for theWhite House are usually de ned by the end of Super Tuesday. fi fi fi ff fi ff fi fi ffi ff ffi ff Unpledged delegates also known as superdelegates (Democrat party) can vote for whichever candidate they want and are not chosen by primary voters or caucusgoers. These are people that hold special positions within the party such as senators, representatives or former presidents. Unpledged delegates only vote in the National Convention if no nominee achieves the necessary majority. The number of unpledged delegates is signi cantly small in comparison to the one of pledged delegates, however they can determine the result of the primary elections.